Biodiv Sci ›› 2007, Vol. 15 ›› Issue (6): 687-692.  DOI: 10.1360/biodiv.070080

Special Issue: 植物与传粉者相互作用 传粉生物学 昆虫多样性与生态功能

• Special Issue • Previous Articles    

Current research on the status of wild bees and their pollination roles

Jie Li1 , Chaodong Zhu2*φ , Fenghe Wang3, Dunyuan Huang2,4, Yanzhou Zhang2, Liang Ding2, Hairong Huang2,5   

  1. 1 Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu 030801
    2 Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101
    3 Institute of Information on Agricultural Science and Technology, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, Beijing 100089
    4 College of Biology, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000
    5 The Key Laboratory for Silviculture and Conservation of the Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083
  • Online:2007-11-20 Published:2007-11-20

Abstract: Pollination has been recognized to be an important ecological process to maintain and promote biodiversity on earth. The order Hymenoptera, especially the superfamily Apoidea, is one of the most abundant and diverse groups among natural pollinators. However, studies on the ecological functions of wild bee pollinators have been underappreciated in China. More professional taxonomists are urgently needed to sur-vey fauna, to provide accurate identifications and to do comprehensive studies. Our understanding of nesting biology or pollination biology is not comprehensive for most wild bees. On the other side, much more atten-tion should be paid to the associations between bees and plants for their application to various projects on pollination biology, biodiversity or conservation biology in the future. We review current research on the status of wild bees, and we anticipate further applications to practices in agriculture and forestry with infor-mation from taxonomy, nesting biology and pollination biology of wild bees.